re-entry...

Hola Amigos-Amigas!

I am fresh out of the Amazon and experiencing my traditional resentment of human existence after a time in the wilderness. I miss the sounds of the crickets, the calls of the birds, the screams of the monkeys and the song of the frogs - but I will adjust once more as I always do.

I have spent the last 5 days at the Yarina Lodge about an hour by boat outside of the city of Coca. In Ecuador, this region is called the Oriente but it is a part of the larger Amazon basin. We were located off one of the Amazon River's main tributaries, the Rio Napa. This is also oil country and as we floated down the river towards our destination on Monday I could see a few distant oil flares rise above the tree line. There are a variety of indigenous communities in this region, the Yurani, the Quichua, and one other that I am forgetting right now. Our lodge is run by mostly indigenous men and our guide for the week, Rafael, was a lovely Quichua man who had an incredible knowledge of the selva (jungle), its inhabitants, and the plant life we were surrounded by. As expected, it has been a hot, humid week, but thankfully the nights cool off and sleeping wasn't that bad! It was a beautiful setting and a variety of excursions into the jungle were scattered between my 5 hour spanish classes. We usually hiked on the trails around our lodge and sometimes took a canoe to a lagoon nearby or to visit a local Quichua family's home (set up as something of a living museum to learn about their culture and traditional practices).

I was joined this week by 4 other students and 2 teachers. My compañeras were from Norway, England, and San Francisco. I have enjoyed studying in Quito, but the city could hold no comparison to studying in an open air lodge with hammocks hanging, and monkeys feasting on bananas within sight. Some highlights of the week:

- 3 varieties of monkeys: squirrel, spider, and a third I can't remember the name of...
- tapirs - I had never heard of these before, sort of like a small hippo, but I also heard it referred to as the elephant of the jungle....I think these were my favourite
- toucans and parrots - up close because the lodge had a little animal reserve where they were re-introducing animals into the jungle that had been illegally removed from the jungle
- cayman or crocodile- within 2 feet of our boat!
- tarantulas - but not in my room!
- many fascinating plants with incredible medicinal properties (saw one that will provide birth control for around 4 years!)
- incredible food
- not bad sleep
- a 35 metre tower built around one of the largest tree in the Amazon with an incredible view over the canopy

Last night was probably my favourite excursion with 2 of us heading out into the darkness in a canoe with our guide. It was literally pitch black and without a light our guide paddled us safely to our destination and back without hitting even a branch. We went to a nearby lagoon where we paddled around listening the choruses of frogs, watching the stars, the lights of the fireflies and various larvae floating in the water, got really close to a crocodile and later saw 2 baby crocs a little ways away, and saw one massive frog. It was a phenomenal night.

I will write more about some of the cultural things I learned while at Yarina. In a few hours we are headed back to Coca on what I've heard is an extremely intense overnight bus. The plan is to hope right on to another bus in the morning with my friends and head to Mindo for the weekend, but we'll see how I feel come morning. Mindo is just outside of Quito and is in the heart of a cloud forest reserve that's supposed to have a pretty incredible zip-line and great hiking and butterflies. If I don't make it out there, I'll stick around Quito, recoup, do my laundry and get to a few museums I've been meaning to get to. and maybe even a movie....

I hope all is well wherever you are.
Tamara